


The Hair Tie

by greeneyesandthesunrise



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Art Muse trope, Chloe can be nice, F/M, Fluff, Give my sweet baby bee a redemption arc, after Reverser, after the Style Queen trilogy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-05
Updated: 2018-10-15
Packaged: 2018-11-23 14:55:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 2,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11404755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greeneyesandthesunrise/pseuds/greeneyesandthesunrise
Summary: A tale of not-so-simple acts of random kindess, a tragic case of art block, and an english project.





	1. Chapter 1

“Hey, do one of you have a hair tie?” Chloe’s eyes flitted up the stairs to see Nathaniel leaning from his table to Rose and Juleka’s, his question hanging in the air as the two girls checked their wrists and bags. “No, I’m sorry!” “Me either…” The red head shrugged and straightened in his chair, smiling as he thanked them for looking. He bent back over his sketchbook, brow furrowing as he used one hand to hold his hair out of the way as best as he could.

“Sabrina,give me one of my extra hairbows.” The ginger girl nodded quickly, producing a white elastic from her bag in a matter of seconds. Chloe smiled at her before she made her way up the stairs to Nathaniel. Silently, she tossed the object onto his sketch. His pencil paused, and his brows knitted in confusion before he smiled and picked up the object. Chloe turned and began walking away before he could look at her. She refused to look back at him, taking her seat and smiling. She chose to pretend nothing had happened. 

The driver was late. In fact, he was so late that every other student seemed to have vacated the premise. She huffed and crossed her arms. How dare he make her wait? Daddy would be firing him as soon as she got home. “Do you want this back now?” The voice made her jump. Looking up and to her left, she met his eyes.. “What?” “The hair tie. Thank you, by the way. I’m assuming you want it back?” His eyes shimmered like sea glass, unsure but also grateful. His hand was outstretched, the small white object resting innocently in his palm. She looked at it for a long while, contemplating. Then, she looked at him. His face was open, albeit a bit wary. He wasn’t quite sure what to think of her act of kindness, she could tell. He faltered under her stare, nervous of the scathing remark she seemed to be forming. Instead, she looked away, eyeing the approaching car. As she gathered her bag and started down the steps, she smiled over her shoulder, “Keep it, Nathaniel. It might come in handy.”


	2. Chapter 2

The library was quiet, more-so than usual. It was always like this early in the morning. Chloé would never admit it, but it was nice to be alone by choice every once in awhile. Sabrina was out sick today, some sort of stomach bug. Chloé wanted to go visit her, but that would run the risk of getting sick herself, or showing how much she actually cared. She had just settled on sending a maid to the Raincomprix residence and was about to call her daddy to make it happen, when she heard a soft curse from the other side of the book shelf. 

Curiosity getting the better of her, Chloé leaned around the bookshelf to peek at the culprit. His back was turned to her, but the red hair told her exactly who was sitting at the table. She could see a little bit over his shoulder, and on the table was the white elastic she’d loaned him months ago. It was no longer a loop, but just a stretchy cord. Evidently, it had snapped as he began to work on something. His shoulders were slumped as he rested his head on the table in defeat. A low groan of agony lead Chloé to believe this was another event in a series of unfortunate ones.

She returned to her seat and gathered her things. Before she left, she let her own hair down, shaking it out and combing through it with her fingers. Another peek around the corner proved he hadn’t moved. Silently, she dropped her own hair tie on his desk and hurried out of the library. As she fixed her hair in the bathroom, she made arrangements for a maid to go to Sabrina’s home with whatever it was that made sick people feel better. Chloé would be there after school.


	3. Chapter 3

The soft thump of the heavy library door closing made Nathaniel lift his head. When a glance around the room revealed no newcomers, he returned his gaze to his own table. He glanced from his work to give a scathing glare to the broken hair tie, when he noticed a new one sitting right next to it. A single blonde hair was coiled around it, and he blinked owlishly at it. A few minutes passed before he put the offering to good use and tied his hair back, setting to work finishing his essay. 

Despite being at school so early, he barely made it to class on time. In his rush to get to his desk, he didn’t spare a glance to his classmates. It wasn’t until he’d already unpacked his supplies that he noticed her. The blonde curls fell over her back, a little creased and poofy from where it had obviously been in a ponytail before. His fingers found the elastic looped around his own hair. Of course it was her’s, he’d known that much when he first saw it on his table. He had simply assumed she would get an extra one from Sabrina and put her hair back up into it’s normal style. But, Sabrina was no where to be found, and so Chloé’s hair tumbled down her shoulders to the middle of her back. 

He was distracted. It was distracting. She was distracting. As he scribbled his notes for lecture, he found his fingers itching. Itching to draw her, hair cascading down in imperfect perfection, posture perfect even as she scrambled to take notes. She was… strange. The class bully, yet she shows kindness. Albeit, in her own odd way. Sneaking around, or pretentiously sticking her nose in the air when people give her odd glances for a random act of kindness. He had assumed that was just her personality. Kindness displayed only for personal gain, or building some sort of reputation. Politicians do it all the time, right? The rich and famous? But then, how to explain the moment on the steps? The library? The fact that he could see now that she was frantically weiting her own notes, and making a copy on a second page.He had no doubt that they were for Sabrina. What was she trying to do? Could she be… changing? Maybe, sure. He could believe that. People can change. But Sabrina was an understandable person for Chloé to show kindness to… Why Nathaniel?


	4. Chapter 4

By the time he made it to the school, he had finished the coffee anyways. After stashing the thermos in his locker, he tucked his sketchbook under his arm and turned on his heels to make his way to the classroom… Only to catch a glimpse of a certain blonde from the corner of his eye. She was looking into a mirror in her locker, tilting her head different ways as if contemplating something about her appearance. He wasn’t too sure anything was different… Her outfit was nothing out of her ordinary, her lips were still painted paler than color theory told him they should be, and her hair was still in a ponytail. He didn’t fully realize he’d made his way over until he made eye contact with himself in the mirror. His eyes snapped back to her and he found her staring at him like he’d grown a second head. “...You should let your hair down more often. It’s a nice look on you, Chloe.” He didn’t wait to hear her tell him to mind his own business or any other snarky response she was liable to spit at him. He stuck his gaze to the ground and hurried his way out of the locker room.

Finding a quiet spot to sketch was a talent of its own with a school like Francis Dupont. Students chattered around every corner, leaning on walls and taking up classrooms and lunch tables and benches all over campus. But he managed to find reprieve in his classroom eventually, and was able to sketch in peace before class began. As he had grown older, he’d found himself straying more away from his comic books and towards traditional art. Still, he hesitated to draw from life too much because of incidents like the time he sketched Chloe’s bracelet and had been accused of stealing it. Today he resolved to change that. He began sketching the desk in the front row, and the window next to it. By the time he’d finished the rough outline and glanced back to the real life scene, there was a person there. Well, to be exact, the was a Chloe Bourgeois there. Absently, he began to sketch her into the scene, too. She was resting her chin on one hand, the other resting on the table. She was reading over some magazine, and he could see her legs crossed. She had let her flat slip off her foot slightly and was bouncing it to an unheard rhythm as she read. Her head was only partially angled towards him, enough to see the sweep of her long lashes and her lips parted slightly, as if she was about to speak. He didn’t realize how long he’d been frantically gazing between her and his book and sketching until she lifted her head and narrowed her eyes at him. Unsure of how to respond, he held her gaze and felt his face flush hot. With a huff she stormed over and held out a hand to him, palm up and expecting. “D-do y- uh… what do you? What are you holding out your hand for?” His hand subconsciously reached to the hair tie on his wrist as if to protect it. “The book, Red! I want to see your sketch.” Dumbly, he fumbled to pick it up and hand it to her. What the hell is going on? 

She studied the page a little, then flipped back a few pages, and then back to today’s sketch. He watched her, searching her face with knitted brows, “Did you just call me Red?” “Yeah, so?” “That… isn’t my name?” “Congratulations, Nathaniel, you’ve announced the obvious.” “Did you just give me a… nickname?” “Are we stating the obvious now? I can do that. You drew me.” “I.. I did.” “It’s nice.” “Thank you?” “You’re welcome.” She set his sketchbook down and turned on her heel. She flounced back to her seat, apparently done with the conversation when he realized something. “You! Your hair is down!” She paused next to her seat, and glanced over her shoulder. She smiled a little, almost secretively, and his breath caught. The sunlight from the window gave her a golden halo as she quirked a brow as if the answer was obvious. “You told me I should, Nathaniel.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chloe is a strange creature, and Nathaniel can't quite figure her out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Im a sucker for group project tropes

“You told me I should, Nathaniel.” She’d said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world but it left him dumbfounded. Along with Alya and Marinette, she was among the top three girls in their class who would listen to nobody. Yet, a moment of boldness from him had swayed her to change something. About her appearance, no less. He, Nathaniel Kurtzburg, had some semblance of influence over the Chloe Bourgeois? On top of that, when did his opinion of her become so… neutral? She was the class bully, right? The spoiled brat, “my-daddy-is-the-mayor”, calls everything ridiculous, derives joy from other’s misfortune, extremely conceited rich girl. Right? But recently… She’s been kinder. Not even just to him, either. She had paused mid-scoff at a compliment from Rose and said “Thank you” instead. In fact, even the last five akuma’s hadn’t had anything to do with her. Maybe… she was changing? She had seemed to have an attitude shift after the whole Queen Bee thing… Slowly, of course, but now that he was looking for it, he could see it. 

A frustrated sigh pushed past his lips as he labored over a miniature sketch of the painting-in-progress in his room. While Art Club did help his creativity, he was still drawing a blank. None of the faces he sketched fit the feeling he wanted. They were either too sultry, too excited, or too close to deadpan. He knew the feeling he wanted to convey, he just couldn’t find the face to portray it correctly. He had gotten close a few times, but it just wasn’t right. Marinette, Marc, and Alix had all offered opinions but none of it helped him nail the expression. This was the worst type of art block.

“Alright class, we’re going to group up for a project! You will have two weeks to work with your partner on a scene analysis from Pride And Prejudice.” The whole class began moving as one before Mme Bustier clapped her hands for attention, “I already picked your partners, to avoid having the same groups we always have. So, the groups are as follows: Sabrina and Max, Kim and Rose, Juleka and Alix, Adrien and Alya, Marinette and Nino, and Nathaniel and Chloe.” As the rest of the class shuffled to their partners, some more excitedly than others, Nathaniel sat still and watched Chloe saunter her way up to his desk. “You’re free tonight, right?” He nodded, “Yes, do you want to work at my place or yours?” “Mine, duh.” Touché, He thought, This is still Chloe Bourgeois. So, it was decided he would head to her place after school, and he shot his parents a quick text to let them know he may be late for dinner or miss it entirely. As the bell rang for their next classes, he began to mentally brace himself to refuse to do all the work.


End file.
